


that rare chance

by lovelyflowersinherhair



Series: Table Four [30]
Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:20:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22919101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyflowersinherhair/pseuds/lovelyflowersinherhair
Summary: They had reached the press box, and Jack tried the handle, pleased when it was unlocked, and he led the way into the room, practically barrelling into a scowling Jeff. More importantly for his cardiac health, there were Dawn’s missing friends. Kristy was talking at a man who looked distinctly displeased with her presence, while Mary Anne hovered behind them, and Stacey and Claudia could be seen admirably pretending to be focused on the game.
Series: Table Four [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/14125
Comments: 5
Kudos: 5





	that rare chance

Dawn and Jeff were still sitting in their seats when Jack returned from the men’s room, which would have been fine had he only taken the two of them to the game, but he definitely hadn’t, so where the hell had the other girls gone? His glance around the the surrounding area revealed no sign of Dawn and Jeff’s step-sister, let alone the rest of Dawn’s friends. “Where did the others go?” He asked warily. Sharon would have flown to Palo City to fillet him if he’d managed to accidentally lose Mary Anne, and he would have probably deserved it if she had. 

“They went to buy food at the snack bar,” Dawn supplied after a moment. “Why would we have gone with them, Dad? You know I don’t eat that stuff.” 

Jack opened his mouth to speak, but Jeff beat him to the punch. 

“Are you sure?” He questioned in a tone that Jack himself questioned the sincerity of. “Maybe they just went to the press box?” 

“Jeff!” Dawn exclaimed. “It’s none of your business where they went.” 

“You’re the one who’s lying to Dad,” he whined. “The camera panned to the press box, and Kristy said ‘oh my God, that’s Patrick’, and they just left us here,” he complained. “It’s not fair. Why does Kristy’s boyfriend get to give them press box access? I wanted to go. I actually follow the Giants!”

The headache that Jack had been nursing the entire trip had come back with a vengeance, and he made a silent vow to never ignore Sharon’s warnings about traveling with the BSC ever again. 

“Kristy’s boyfriend?” 

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Chill out, Dad. He’s not her boyfriend. Patrick’s her father.” 

“That makes this worse, Dawn! Not better!” Jack said as he tried to maintain his cool. “Get up, the both of you. The two of you are coming with me.” 

“Why?” 

“Are we going to the press box?” Jeff asked, and he scrambled out of his seat at Jack’s nod, dragging Dawn up with him. “Cool!”

Jack was busy reminding himself that everyone involved in this debacle was under the age of fourteen, with the exception of both himself and that Patrick person, and that he knew that stupidity came into play when it came to dealing with teenagers. He couldn’t really fault Dawn for going along with her friends. He was just grateful that Jeff’s jealousy of the girls had been to his benefit. Dawn was too young to realize that there were several scenarios running through his head due to Jeff’s confession, and each of them was worse than the last. To Dawn, this was clearly normal behavior on the part of Kristy’s father. 

Jack was fearing that the man had somewhat more sinister intentions. He had barely wanted Stacey to meet her boyfriend in Seattle without supervision, but that had at least been cleared by both her parents. 

Jack hadn’t even been told that Watson wasn’t Kristy’s father. There was no way in hell that he was going to remain in his seat and pretend to be oblivious while his daughter’s friends were in the care of a virtual stranger. Had Dawn even met this man? Part of him didn’t even want to know. The other part knew he needed to. 

“Have you ever met him? Patrick?”

“We’re not allowed to,” she supplied. “He makes Kristy keep his visits a secret from everyone. He’s not nice like you, Dad.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean, if you came to Stoneybrook, you’d let Mom and Richard know, right? You wouldn’t make us keep you a secret from them and from all our friends?” 

“Of course I wouldn’t want to be kept a secret,” Jack told her. “And, yes, I would tell your mother. I’m not claiming that Carol and I would be dying to go on a double date with her and Richard, but, honestly Dawn, I would never do what he’s doing. Frankly, the fact that he’s doing this is concerning to me.” Jack ran his hands through his hair and spotted the entrance to the press box at the edge of his field of sight. “Jeff?”

“Yeah, Dad?” 

“If you beat us to the press box and get inside, I’ll buy you an ice cream.” 

“Cool!”

Jeff darted off ahead of them. Whether it was due to the promise of ice cream or the allure of the press box, Jack wasn’t sure. He really didn’t care, either. 

“What your friend’s dad is doing, Dawn,” he told her, not wanting to upset her but hoping to convey the seriousness of the behavior. “What he’s doing is wrong. It’s fucked up. Having her keep his visits a secret? Making you lie about where they were going? I would never allow or expect that either of my children did that. It would never -- not once -- occur to me that that was acceptable to do. It’s weird. What does he want from her?” 

“I don’t know,” she said as they closed the gap between the corridor and the press box. “He ran out on them when she was six, Dad. I didn’t know them then.”

“Which is why the others went with her?” 

They had reached the press box, and Jack tried the handle, pleased when it was unlocked, and he led the way into the room, practically barrelling into a scowling Jeff. More importantly for his cardiac health, there were Dawn’s missing friends. Kristy was talking at a man who looked distinctly displeased with her presence, while Mary Anne hovered behind them, and Stacey and Claudia could be seen admirably pretending to be focused on the game.

“Sir?” One of the other reporters said. “You really need credentials to be back here.” 

“Why?” Jack demanded. “The girls with your coworker certainly don’t. They’re children.”

“Are you talking about Patrick’s daughter and her friends?” 

“Yes,” he said. “That is exactly who I’m talking about. Patrick’s daughter and her friends. You see, I’m in charge of them, and I don’t exactly appreciate finding out that they’ve wandered away from our seats, under false pretenses, to see that deadbeat,” he told him. “And don’t you dare defend him. The park has a PA. It should have been used to alert me to their whereabouts so that we could be introduced. That’s what I would do if I unexpectedly ran into one of my children somewhere where they weren’t meant to be.” 

“Sir--”   
  


“It’s fine, Chris,” Patrick interjected, having slunk up behind him during Jack’s rant. “I can handle it myself.” 

“I was going to say that he has a point,” the other reporter said. “How old are those girls?” 

Patrick shrugged. “How the hell should I know? They’re Kristy’s friends. They know her harridan of a mother.” 

“They look awfully young,” the man, apparently named Chris, said hesitantly. “How old did you say they were, Mr…?”

“Schafer,” he informed him. “Jack Schafer.” he shook his hand. “I would say that the oldest is only fourteen,” he said. “I know for a fact that Mary Anne is only thirteen. As for the others? I really couldn’t say for certain, but the Californian bar would state that they are too young to be having unsupervised contact with a non-custodial parent. Especially one who clearly sees nothing wrong with not telling--”

“Because it’s none of your business!” Patrick insisted. “My god, you sound just like Liz. She’d have an actual fit about me spending time with Kristy, just like you are. It’s not my fault that she came to see me after she saw my mug on the audience pan. You think I wanted that to happen? Hell no.”   
  


“What?” Kristy asked, her voice unbelievably small. “Dad?”   
  


“What?” Patrick said. “You can’t seriously think that I wanted you to show up here? Where I work? Where my girlfriend is? Why would I want that? You should know by now that hiding things is what we want--”   
  


“What we want?” She demanded. “No. It’s what you want. I hate keeping you a secret, Dad. Why can’t you ever be normal?   
  


“Kristy--”

“Watson and Lisa get along well enough,” she continued. “They don’t make Karen and Andrew hide when they see each other. Neither do Mr. and Mrs. McGill, or Mr. Schafer and Mrs. Spier. None of them have been divorced as long as you and Mom, and they still manage to not completely suck! You made me hide you for weeks the last time you came, and I hated it. Why can’t you act like an adult and not a kid for once?” 

“And you went out and told Liz anyways,” he sneered. “Hell, Mary Anne probably went crying to Daddy the first night she saw me. She knows how Richard felt about me. That Liz was too good for her scoundrel husband.” 

“So what if she had?” Jack demanded. “If Mary Anne went home and told Richard you were there, that was the right thing to do, her behavior would have been justified. If she didn’t, that’s okay,” he added hastily, having caught a glimpse of Mary Anne’s face. “She was just making the error of assuming she was listening to an adult.” 

“I did tell them,” Mary Anne said after a moment, her voice barely audible. “Not at first, but after Dawn had stolen your credit card and I realized that normal divorced parents still spoke to each other. I didn’t know that you were supposed to communicate. How would I know? My mom is dead.” She fixed her gaze on the ground. “It’s not like I had much experience with divorced parents before Sharon married my dad. Kristy’s were the only ones that I knew. Kristy’s dad always does this stuff.” 

“Yeah, we know,” Patrick said. “Your dad’s some kind of saint because your mom bit it, and he became enshrined in her memory. Wasn’t that why you had to live with your grandparents? I would have bothered to spend the time or the money that he had to to get you back.”

“Shut up,” Jack said. “This isn’t about what happened over a decade ago. This is about what you’re doing right now. I think that it’s rich of you to criticize what Richard did when he was grieving, given that you what? Abandoned your entire family without a goodbye?” 

Patrick scoffed. “I wanted to go to California,” he said. “Liz knew I didn’t want to be tied down by that baby, and she went and had him anyways. I had no choice.”

“You could have had the  _ decency _ to ask her for a divorce, and not make your daughter lie to everyone she knows when you wander into town when the whim strikes you. Why don’t you let your ex know when you’re in town?” Jack shook his head. “Of course, given your reaction to  _ me _ discovering your encounter, I can see why no one wants you around them.”

“What? Go up to that mansion she lives in and give her a howdy? I barely want to explain myself to you.” 

“We’re leaving,” he said. “Come on, girls. Jeff.” 


End file.
